362. Extracts from the Port-folwo of a Man of Letters. [May 1, 
Boccacio all his graces and his beauties. 
With respect to his judgment, that is a 
faculty he least excels in, for it very often 
fails him: he makes women, whom he 
calls virtuous, hold conversations which 
would be shameful in the most infamous 
places; at other times, he makes them 
speak as Epicureans, without considering 
who are the persons whom he introduces 
on the scene; and even his description of 
the plague of Florence, pathetic as it is, 
does not appear to me quite in its proper 
place. 
THE CHARACTER OF PLINY THE 
NATURALIST. 
. What respectis not due to the memory 
of Pliny ? He is without exception one of 
the greatest men of antiquity: he is an 
author who has received praises from all 
the truly wise, and who is only despised 
by the vulgar literati, as it has been re- 
marked by one of our most formidable 
critics, Plinius tantus vir ut non mirum 
sit, si vulgus illum improbet, guum minimé 
sit Auctor vulgaris. Gibbon has ingee 
niously described his work as “the Li- 
brary of the Poor Man.” Nevertheless, 
those who have praised him the most, 
have discovered inhim many defects; but, 
for the greater part of these defects he 
ought: not to incur censure. Was he 
obliged to know more of Physic, Medicine, 
or Astronomy, of the virtues of plants 
and minerals, or of other things of the 
same nature, than was known inhistime? 
If he has appeared too credulous with 
respect to some facts, which have the air 
of the marvellous, has he not acted in the 
same manner as all the illustrious histori- 
ans of his age; and amongst others, Livy, 
whom [ could on this subject turn into 
ridicule, as easily as Pliny has been? 
I have always thought, and I do still, 
that great men ought not to be con- 
demned so inconsiderately: Modesté et 
circumspecto judicio de tantis viris pro- 
nunciandum. — I allow, that we should not 
copy their errors; but before we pro- 
mounce judgment against them, we 
should consider well whether some ex- 
cuse might not be offered for them; rea- 
son and equity command it, and so does 
the self-interest of those who ever attempt 
to write. — j 
After all, though Pliny committed some 
faults (which we cannot deny), we ought ~ 
to be less surprized at that, than at his not 
having committed a grea. many more. 
Every wise man who considers the im- 
mense extent of his design, the prodigious 
quantity of knowledge, and of curiosities 
which it contains, the infinite number of 
buoks from which he was obliged to take 
his materials, and that in the midst of 
considerable occupations, military as well 
as political, must be struck with ajust ad- 
miration of the excellence of his history. 
He will say with the candour of Horace : 
_Verum ubi plura nitent in carmine, non ego paucis 
Offendar maculis, quas aut ineuria fudit, 
Aut humana parum cavit natura. 
But ina poem elegantly writ, © _ 
T would not quarrel with a slight mistake, 
Such as our nature’s frailty may excuse. 
He will laugh at those literary bullies, 
who, incapable of perceiving the solid 
beauties with which a work abounds, 
think themselves great persons for disco- 
vering some trifling defects. In fact, he 
will say, with one of the most judicious 
critics of the last century, that whoever 
speaks ill of Pliny, hurts that great man’s 
reputation much less, than he does his 
own: Non tantum Pliniano detrazit ne- 
mini quam suo. ; 
PETRARCH’S WILL. 
There isa Life of Petrarch, published by 
Jerome Squarzaficus of Alexandria, very 
scarce, but printed in the curious edition 
of Petrarch’s Latin works, in folio, at Ve- 
nice, in 1501. It also eontains his will, 
which is rather singular, for the whimsical 
and good-humoured satire with which he 
disposes of his legacies to his friends and 
domestics. - 
He bequeaths to Lombardus Asericus 
his silver gilt goblet, out of which he is to 
drink water, which he likes better than 
wine : “ cum quo bibat aqguam, quam liben- 
ter bibit, multo libentius quam vinum;” to - 
John de Bochetta, vestry-keeper of his 
church, hisgreat breviary, which hadcost 
~ him a hundred francs; to John de Cer- 
taldo seu Boccatio, fifty gold florins, of 
Florence, to buy him a winter garment, 
fit for his studies and his vigils; to Tho- 
mas de Bambasia de Ferrare, his lute, 
that he might make use of it to sing the 
praises of the Lord, non pro vanitate 
seculi fugacis ; to Barthelmi de Sienne, 
called Pancaldus, twenty, dacats, with 
the proviso, that he does not game them 
away, Quos non ludat, 
ORIGINAL 
